Fairuz Alia Jamaluddin

Fairuz Alia Jamaluddin (Alia) currently serves as the Head of Education at UNHCR Malaysia, leading efforts to expand access to quality education for refugee and asylum-seeking children.

From 2018 to 2023, she was a Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Specialist at UNICEF Malaysia, where she supported evidence-based programming and policy engagement for children’s rights. Prior to that, she served at the Ministry of Education’s Performance and Delivery Unit (PADU), where she helped implement key initiatives under the Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB 2013-2025), focusing on strengthening school leadership and teacher training institutes.

In 2015, Alia worked with the Open Learning Exchange (OLE), a US-based social enterprise, implementing These Inspiring Girls Enjoy Reading (TIGER), an after-school reading programme for adolescent girls in the Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan.

Alia is no stranger to UNHCR, having previously served from 2012 to 2015 as a Senior Education Assistant. During that time, she helped implement key education programmes, including teacher training and compensation initiatives that supported refugee learning centres across Malaysia.

Before transitioning to the humanitarian and development sectors, she worked as a Business Analyst for a tech-based company in Malaysia and as a teacher at PERMATA Pintar, the national gifted and talented education centre.

She holds a Master of Education in International Education Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin.

Making an impact means creating opportunities where they don’t yet exist. In my line of work, it means ensuring that every child, including the most marginalized, has the right to education and the support to reach their fullest potential. It’s about changing systems and mindsets so that inclusion becomes the norm, not the exception.